Unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, you know that Mark Zuckerberg has been drinking from a firehose. Recently, Zuckerberg spent two days answering a slew of questions during a U.S. Senate hearing over Facebook’s inability to prevent the spreading of fake news and to protect user privacy.
For good reason, the tech giant is under scrutiny. But with the spotlight shining on them, I’m still reminded of how Facebook built their success, which stemmed from their unprecedented ability to create user engagement.
Perhaps now more than ever, it’s a valuable reminder for B2B companies in today’s tech-centric world. We know that the buying landscape looks vastly different than when Facebook first launched in 2004, but consider the following:
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- The average reader only spends 37 seconds reading an article or blog post- NewsCred Insights
- 63% of consumers need to hear company claims 3-5x before they actually believe it- Edelman Trust Barometer
- Today’s sales process takes 22% longer than 5 years ago- Biznology
The point is that it’s become increasingly difficult to capture attention and mindshare. Buyers now have more power than ever. They have more information. More choices. And, perhaps most importantly for marketing and business leaders, they are less visible and less trustworthy.
So how can you drive lead engagement in a tech-centric world? Here’s what we recommend:
Actionable Audience Personas
Again, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard this term before. But, the problem is that many B2B brands don’t go far enough with their personas to make them truly actionable. Chances are they identify basic demographic characteristics such as age, gender and location. But when it comes to characteristics that influence more granular marketing strategies for engagement, many B2B buyer personas fall short. Often, they don’t include their audience’s:
- Biggest challenges facing their business
- Methods for product research
- Type of content they consume
- Motivations for buying new products and services
- Responsibilities related to their job performance
- Plans for reaching their business goals
In order to drive lead engagement in a tech-centric world, talk to existing customer and uncover actionable persona insights that provide direction to your content and digital promotion strategy.
Attention-Grabbing Content
Today, most brands understand the value of content marketing. But just like with personas, they often fall short. They settle for creating “fluff” rather than investing the time into content that is truly differentiated. Rather than talking about general marketing or sales tips, focus on content that is hyper-specific to your audience. For example, if you’re a building material manufacturer, offer content strategies on how builders and contractors can reduce call backs, optimize job site efficiency or increase in-home selling opportunities through your products, services or tools.
Additionally, make it easily accessible. Too often, we see brands hide or “gate” the majority of their brilliant ideas for fear that their competition will steal it. But, if you aren’t creating valuable insights that are accessible, your audience will leave instantly and search for it elsewhere. Instead, perhaps you could offer a portion of it for free before requiring some information from your leads.
In order to drive lead engagement in a tech-centric world, build your content with the goal of creating a meaningful, one-on-one relationship.
Practical Sales and Marketing Alignment
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: salespeople don’t close enough leads. And marketers don’t produce enough high quality leads for salespeople to close. The age-old catfight between sales and marketing professionals has only heightened of late.
Why? Because as buyers take more control of their path-to-purchase, they interact with these departments in a more fluid and non-linear manner. For B2B organizations, creating things like service level agreements and lead scoring criteria will enhance their ability to communicate with leads at different stages. Without these in place, B2B companies open themselves up to mixed messages for the buyer, which creates frustration and disengagement.
In order to drive lead engagement in a tech-centric world, create a sense of alignment between marketing and sales departments in order to properly serve potential, new and existing customers. Stay tuned for our next blog which will offer a step-by-step approach on how to put this in place.
Building a B2B Marketing Strategy that Works for You, Literally
A B2B company website can be one of its most effective salesmen when working in tandem with an inbound marketing program. As we see it, your B2B website should work 24/7 to support your sales and marketing goals – attracting prospects, generating leads and providing potential customers with the helpful information they need when they need it, even when the office is closed.
Want to better understand how our approach can solve your B2B lead engagement strategies? Learn more by downloading our Keyword Strategy and Research PDF or contact us to schedule a complimentary consultation.
